a biblical musical drama by Sandra Goldberg
St. Peter’s Church, Zürich
11 and 12 January 2009
Concept
“Judah Judah” is a biblical musical drama about the story of Chanukah, describing the joyful holiday as celebrated in our time, but also telling the lesser known dark side of the biblical history of Chanukah — the struggle for religious freedom by the Maccabees and Judah their leader. It is a study in contrast and co-existence between present and past, joy and despair.
This contrast is achieved through the following elements:
The music — “pop” for the present, serious for the past;
The characters — a contemporary Jewish family preparing for the Chanukah festivities (boy and girl, mother) and two biblical families, both so religious they are willing to die for their beliefs, and their adversaries, the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes IV, his officer Apelles, and the Syrian-Greek army;
The dreidel — a spinning top, normally with 4 Hebrew letters used for a children’s gambling game. In this work, a magical dreidel with Greek letters spins us into the biblical past, becoming a metaphor for the contrasting elements of the story.
Performance
Vocal soloists and choir
Small instrumental ensemble
Dancers
Narrator
Picture projections
Short Synopsis
Two children play dreidel while their mother is preparing Chanukah latkes for the evening celebration. They find a magic dreidl which has Greek letters on it. When they spin it they are transported into the past by Judah the Maccabee and Apelles, officer of Antiochus. The Chanukah story begins, including the stories of Mattathius, Chana and her seven sons, and the desecration of the Temple. Back in the present, the children decide to go back to the past and help the Maccabees fight.
They observe the Greek army camp, participate in the surprise attack by the Maccabees and return triumphantly with Judah, leading the chained Apelles. (In my version of the story, Mattathius knocks him out, but he doesn’t get killed). The people rejoice, the Temple is cleaned up, and the Eternal Light is relit. The children, now enlightened by their experience reliving history, return to the present to celebrate Chanukah.
Background
I was trained as a violinist and as a pianist. Occasionally I would write something down, but never really got serious about composing until several years ago when my sister’s fiancé Steve Swank gave me a poem he had written. The poem Window Ships hung on my wall for awhile until one day I heard a melody in the words. I began to compose a song for tenor, violin and piano. I asked Steve for more poems and ended up writing two more songs, one for tenor and string quartet and one for tenor and piano. I then recorded the songs with my pianist husband Robert Hairgrove and some friends and presented them in CD-form to Steve and my sister Daryl as a wedding present. After the CD was finished I had a dream: a friend of mine who sings Yiddish songs was singing the opening motif to Judah the Maccabee. When I awoke, I wrote down the theme and then continued to write what I call a Jewish gospel song. The following Chanukah, I had a latkes party and introduced the song to my guests. One of my guests who had heard the CD suggested that I write a musical about the Chanukah story. I thought about it, and realized I had heard of Christmas pageants and Purim plays, but didn’t know of any Chanukah plays.
I started writing, taking text from the bible and creating my own version of the story. All of the words are either mine or from biblical text. In Kadosh, the melody to the prayer we sing in the synagogue was incorporated into the song. Otherwise, all of the melodies are my own, except for Music in the Greek Camp, a Greek folk song which I have arranged and changed into a drinking song, and two traditional Chanukah songs which appear in the Battle Music. In the meantime, Judah Judah has developed into a complete musical drama, and and there is a full script with stage directions and action.
It begins in the present, with two children playing dreidel (Dreydl) while the mother makes latkes. When the children discover and spin a special dreydl with Greek letters on it, Judah appears and takes them and us back to the past: Apelles commands Mattathius to make a sacrifice to Zeus (Olympus) and Mattathius slays the person who offers to make the sacrifice. The following song Kadosh was originally written for tenor Carl Hieger, the cantor at the reform synagogue “Or Chadasch” in Zürich. It was first performed with string quartet for the dedication of the new building in June 2002.
The Desecration of the Temple is sung to a sarcastic melody with an increasingly dissonant accompaniment. After a sudden end when the eternal light goes out, there is an interlude (Sh’ma) for solo violin which I wrote in April 2005, inspired by a poem by Primo Levi. I had written Sabbath Prayer several years before for Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin and decided to put it in the musical drama as a prelude to Be Brave, sung by Chana, the mother of the seven sons who were tortured to death by Antiochus. An interlude (Chana’s Dance) for strings and dancer follows, to let the emotions settle. At this point there is a merging of present and future. Judah Fight brings us back to the present in an upbeat pop style, and then the two children join Judah in reclaiming the temple. Judah sings to his troops to give them courage (Judah’s Song), the Greeks sing, drink and dance in their camp (Music in the Greek Camp), the Maccabees do a slow dance to a Jewish-type melody as they prepare for their surprise attack on the camp, a shofar call is heard and the Battle Music begins. The Battle Music is scored for string quintet, clarinet and drum or tambourine. It is a combination of Jewish and Greek melodies.
Returning to the Temple is actually a three-movement piece in a klezmer style, with an introduction, the song Zeh Ha Yom, and the Hora. The Hora has also been arranged and performed in a version for clarinet and piano. Following the Hora, the temple is purified and the new eternal light (Or Chadash) is dedicated. The work ends with the opening song Judah the Maccabee. Several of the songs were performed at Temple Adath Emanu-El in Mt Laurel, New Jersey in concert version for the very first time in December 2004. All of the instrumental works (without voices) were performed in Zürich at the Zürcher Chamber Orchestra “ZKO-Haus” Open House Weekend in September 2007, and Judah the Maccabee was performed as the opening song of the “Festival of Choirs” in the synagogue “Rodeph Sholom” in New York City on December 9, 2007. The Zürich premiere in St. Peter’s Church on January 11 and 12, 2009 will offer the first complete performance of the entire musical drama.